Yellowstone Finale

No Yellowstone collection is complete until the geyser pictures are displayed. To lead off the geysers, of course here is Old Faithful. It erupts now about every 90 minutes, give or take a few minutes, but it can erupt in as short as 35 minutes, or wait as long as 2 hours.  The height ranges from 90 to 180 feet. Steam temperature has been measured at over 350 degrees. It's incredible to stand on the boardwalk by the geyser when it suddenly shoots straight up into the air. Then the water and steam seem to hang in the air before cascading back down like a tremendous waterfall.

On the boardwalks along the geysers, these are bubbling away. The clearer the bubbling water, the hotter the temperature is. You don't want to step or reach into any of it though. Temperature is over 200 degrees.

This is the Castle Geyser. It's on a very old spring, estimates are that it's been building for anywhere from 5,000 to 15,000 years. The castle-looking cone has built up drop by drop to 12 feet tall.

A close up of sunshine highlighting the bubbling and "sloppy splashing" geyser along the boardwalk near Old Faithful.

The steaming Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone

A bison and me with a geyser between. The bison is shedding his heavy winter coat.

Roaring Mountain. You can see that this massive mountain is chalk white. It also has some piles of black volcanic stacked stones. Erratic rocks are here and many places in volcanic Yellowstone; these are rocks scattered by eruption - thrown and moved by glacier so long ago. Scientists can identify these because they don't match the underlying geology. With all the fumeral vents on this Roaring Mountain when you stand by it you can still hear it, but these days it's less of a roar and more of a whisper.And with that I whisper my farewell and thank you to Yellowstone, our beautiful first National Park.